Econ CommentsForbes | There Are No Longer Any Excuses For ObamanomicsBefore this last recession, since the Great Depression recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months. Yet here we are 47 months after the last recession started, and we still have no real recovery.Bloomberg | Economy Growing at Fastest PaceThe U.S. economy may end 2011 growing at its fastest clip in 18 months as analysts increase their forecasts for the fourth quarter just a few months after a slowdown raised concern among investors. Washington Times | MILLER: Trimming the welfare stateProposals would streamline wasteful, duplicative bureaucracy.AEI: American | It’s Europe’s Economic Growth, StupidEuropean policymakers are clinging to the forlorn hope that the eurozone crisis can readily be defused by putting in place national unity governments in Greece and Italy.

BlogsCafé Hayek | Sniffing Out Rent-SeekersThis young man apparently believes that government refusing to prevent businesses from competing for consumer dollars is the same as government forcibly transferring money from consumers to businesses. But he’s mistaken.WSJ: Real Time Economics | Fed’s Pianalto: European Slowdown Could Trim 0.5% From U.S. GrowthA U.S. Federal Reserve official said Thursday that she sees signs of inflationary pressure moderating, and upgraded her growth forecasts for the next two years.Econlog | Do AS and AD Intersect in a Recession? There, the only problem in the economy is that the wage rate is too high. Thus, you get an excess supply of labor. Given the too-high wage, there is no excess supply in the goods market (firms are producing where marginal revenue equals marginal cost). But I have two issues with the textbook model.WSJ: Real Time Economics | Food Stamp Use Rose in 2010Food stamp use continued to rise in the U.S last year, with almost 12% of all households receiving some form of the assistance, the Census Bureau said Thursday. More recent data show that 15% of the population gets food-stamp assistance.Reason Foundation | Nominal GDP Targeting: Inflation and MisdirectionIn the interview, Romer states that the Fed should encourage inflation and commit to whatever is necessary to achieve rapid growth in the short-term, and then once the economy gets back on trend, “return to normal inflation and get back to the very steady, responsible policy as before.”WSJ: Real Time Economics | European Children More Likely to Outperform Parents Than AmericansDespite the widespread belief among Americans that they’re destined to do better than their parents, Americans are more likely to live as well as or worse than their parents than their counterparts in many European countries.

NewsCNN: Money | National electronic health records network gets closerThe ambitious goal of setting up a nationwide, interconnected, private and secure electronic health records system isn't yet a reality -- but we're getting closer.National Journal | Census Report: '90 Is the New 85'By 2050, the United States is likely to have 9 million people 90 and older, the report projected. In 1980, only 720,000 Americans were around who had lived past their 90th birthdays. That number grew to 1.9 million last year.Politico | Romney's real health reform goals differedMitt Romney has spent a lot of time defending himself over the Massachusetts health care law. But there's another way to judge his health care record: Look at what he wanted to do.

BlogsVolokh Conspiracy | Will the Necessary & Proper clause save Obamacare? Not if the Court follows McCulloch v. MarylandIn short, the Necessary and Proper Clause expressed the well-known agency law doctrine of principals and incidents. That is, the grant of power to an agent (and the federal government was an agent of the people, to exercise certain delegated powers) was considered to include incidental powers. Heritage Foundation | Obamacare Threatens Life and LibertyThe Supreme Court’s announcement on Monday that it will consider the constitutionality of some of Obamacare’s provisions, including the individual mandate, has reignited discussion of the health care law’s many problematic provisions.ThinkMarkets | Sliding Toward the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Absurdist AnalysisSo building upon a very bad decision Wickard v. Filburn, the logic of this constitutional reasoning leads to the Bedlam that it all just a matter of how a law requiring the purchase of health insurance is phrased, and whether you have EVER OR AT ANY TIME engaged in ANY COMMERCE (since everything is interstate!).

Reports RCM: Wells Fargo | Has the Fed’s Unconventional Approach Been Successful?With economic growth projected to remain below trend for at least the next two years and the Federal Funds Target Rate at its lower bound, unconventional monetary policy has become commonplace, but is it effective?

Econ CommentsPolitico | Extend biotech tax creditAmerican families and businesses want Washington to put aside partisanship and help foster an environment in which private-sector job growth can flourish.National Journal | Tax-Reform Debate Advances With Bids From Camp, New Democrat CoalitionAs the high-stakes fight over tax revenue raged behind the super committee’s closed doors, lawmakers outside the special panel began to lay the framework of a more complicated and potentially more significant debate just around the corner – comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code.CNN: Money | Tax millionaires like me more - Dow Chemical CEODow Chemical Chief Executive Officer Andrew N. Liveris is calling on Congress to raise taxes on millionaires -- including himself. Liveris said that balancing revenue collection and distribution of wealth is "what made this country great."

NewsCNN: Money | Unemployment claims fall to another 7-month lowAmid the Great Recession, weekly initial claims had risen as high as 659,000 in March 2009. As the job market started to improve, they eventually retreated to as low as 375,000 in February this year.

BlogsMercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | What Makes for a Good Balanced Budget Amendment?There are many different varieties of balanced budget amendments and some of these have much stronger features than others. In my view, the most-effective amendments are those that:Heritage Foundation | Supercommittee Dithers on Tax Hikes – But Where are the Spending Cuts?What’s a supercommittee to do? Total national debt just hit a new record at $15 trillion, an increase of approximately $700 billion since the Supercommittee’s August inception.AEI: American | Paul Ryan’s 17-page response to the CBO’s income inequality studyOne underreported conclusion from the CBO study is that shifts in government transfers and federal taxes have contributed to increasing inequality over time. Both taxes and government transfers remain progressive, but the equalizing effect of transfers and taxes on household income was smaller in 2007 than it was in 1979.

Reports Mercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | Federal Infrastructure Spending: Neither a Good Stimulus Nor a Good InvestmentAccording to economic research, fiscal stimulus can be counterproductive if it is not timely, targeted, and temporary. By nature, infrastructure spending is not timely and very hard to target. Even when money is available, it can be months or even years before it’s spent.

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This blog is a weekday economic buzz, news, opinions, blogs, research and data aggregated by the Joint Economic Committee, Republican staff. Disclaimer: The content posted here is provided for information uses only and should not be construed as the views of the Joint Economic Committee Republicans.